Why Do We Suffer Pain? |
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 November 30, 2007 |
Pain. No fun.
- Do we blame God? Is it okay to get angry?
- Why doesn’t God come to our urgent help?
Yes, it is okay to tell God exactly how we feel. He wants to hear it. Actually, he already knows it. He will not be offended.
Let’s not get stuck blaming God, however. The enemy Satan is actually the author of pain. It is part of our human condition since Eve ate the apple.
Sometimes when we are in pain it has slipped through God’s filtering with his permission. That is a difficult concept to grasp. Why would a God who loves us let us experience this? When we pray for protection, why does this happen? When we pray for relief, why is it not there?
Friend, I can’t answer all those questions. I can offer a few conclusions I’ve drawn, however.
Sometimes the enemy flails us with pain as a spiritual attack when our spiritual armor has been let down. This is why it is important to remain spiritually vigilant. But, sometimes we are being and we are still attacked. Sometimes it is an attempt to stop us from being who God wants us to be and from doing what God wants us to do.
Other reasons God allows us to experience pain is to help us develop character traits, such as compassion, , patience, reliance on God. Sometimes we can only really be prepared to minister to the uncharted by walking in their shoes for a time.
Some pain is allowed as a test to see if we remain steadfast and reliant on him. It is a test to see where we turn and how we react in distress. Can he count on us?
Most pain causes us to plunge back into surrendered relationship with him. I think he covets our time with him.
Pain can be used to hem us in, for reasons we don’t know.
Psalm 139:5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
What I mean by that, is pain can stop us in our tracks so that we put all our plans on hold. There is a timing issue that God wants adjusted. Pain stops us from being in certain relationships and causes us to be in new ones. We meet new people at doctor and hospital visits. We experience new circumstances through therapies and tests. We stop seeing some friends and others come into our life.
What can we do about pain?
We can pray.
We can ask others to pray.
We can ask the elders of our church to us and pray over us.
We can look for Christian phone counsellors and Internet sites that offer to pray for us.
We can put things on hold and honour God’s timing.
We can use our time of solitude to draw on God.
We can look for meaning in our madness.
We can get to every appointment needed.
We can stay forward looking that the same Jesus that healed in the Bible can heal us too.
We can remind that tomorrow won’t necessarily be a repeat of today. Let’s not get stuck in being our own god.
We can lean on those who God places as support in our path.
Friend, I know that what you are or have experienced is your own reality that is unique to you. I know it has been difficult. Let me know if I can offer a word of prayer for you.
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